Natfduino Brushless Micro is a drop-in product designed to take the headache out of building a semi-auto brushless blaster. No programming, just plug and play. It includes the following features:
- Support for BLheli family of ESC’s and SimonK ESC’s. (BLHeli will need a tune)
- Connects directly to your LiPO pack. Can handle 2s – 6s packs, and will detect and apply the correct acceleration and deceleration profiles based on your pack
- Onboard maximum speed governor – so you can tune the maximum performance output for those FPS limited games
- Optional external speed control pot – so you can have easy speed adjustment between the lowest safe speed and the maximum as configured by the governor
- Twin ESC outputs
- Slow-ramp mode for small batteries + big motors
- Ultra-tiny physical size – 16.5mm x 25mm
Wiring
LiPO Input – Connect directly to your LiPO pack. Anything between 2s and 6s is supported. Although there is polarity protection, please connect the correct way.
Trigger – Connect to a switch of your choice. No current handling required – stock switches are OK
Optional Speed Control – Connect to a Pot of your choice. I recommend 10K linear pots, but any linear pot is fine. Logarithmic pots are OK too – but are a bit touchy. Centre pin goes to the centre pin on the Pot. Left and right pins don’t matter where they go on the pot – they both have to be connected though! FYI, as you are looking down at it (as per the pic above), the left pin is +5v, centre is signal, and right is Gnd.
ESC 1 & 2 – Connect to the ESC signal plug. The ground wires are towards the outside of the board, and the signal wire to the inside. The signal wire is typically the lighter colour of the two. If you get it wrong, you won’t get the ESC arming beeps
On the back
SimK – Run in SimonK mode. Bridge this for SimonK ESC’s,
RampUp – Lower the flywheel acceleration, and current requirement. Good for small batteries or other situations that require lower burst current. Bridge to activate.
EXP1 – Reserved. Does nothing.
ISP – MCU ISP pins. If you are careful, you can use the +5v and GND to power something *small*, or you can otherwise upload your own programming if you like.
Caveats
- Some ESC’s may require a tune prior to use. This is common with the BLheli_xx class of ESC’s
- Pay attention to the ESC capabilities – if you are using high voltages (5s, 6s), you will probably need some bus capacitors to keep the system stable. Even some 4s systems may need additional caps on the bus.
- There is a safety mode on the trigger – you will need to ensure that you have the trigger open on startup – otherwise the system will wait until you release it.
- The board includes polarity protection. However if you incorrectly connect your LiPo battery, and have it correctly connected to your ESC, you will short the LiPo through the ground lines.
- The Max Speed Governor is set to half way on a new board
ESC Tuning (blheli_32)
Typical settings include:
- Min Throttle – 1040
- Max Throttle – 1960
- Startup Power – 75% – 150%
- Timing – 24+
- Beacon Delay – Off
- Auto Throttle Cal – Off (Important!!)
Media
Warning & Warranty
This product is designed for high-performance blasters. Please exercise due caution when modifying and using modified blasters.
All boards are tested prior to shipping. If for some reason it’s dead on arrival, please contact me.
Once soldered to, all warranties and return rights are voided.
This is an advanced modification product and is while sold as a drop-in, it requires additional components. If you are not sure how to go about building a blaster, contact me.